


Magic and Laundry

by nagi_schwarz



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-10
Updated: 2017-07-10
Packaged: 2018-11-29 22:43:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11450586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Based on a comment Jensen Ackles made at the 2013 Nerd HQ, about the boys sitting around playing cards and doing laundry. Apparently when he was in Europe he and a friend played Rummy. This is how the boys of Supernatural would do it.AU after season 8, assumes Crowley was cured.Originally posted onLJin 2013





	Magic and Laundry

Of all the things Mindy expected to see when she showed up to the laundromat for her weekly maintenance check, five men sitting around in their underwear playing Magic: the Gathering was not one of them.  
  
She paused in the doorway. Three of them were hot. One looked like her cousin. And one looked like Badger from Firefly, who was snarky and funny and charming, but really not her type. They were perched on the counters, battlefield in the middle of them. Judging by the average amount of mana they had out, they’d been at it for about seven rounds.  
  
Green-eyed Hottie was clutching his hand of cards with a white-knuckled grip and looked ready to burst a vein. Blue-eyed Hottie was staring at his hand impassively. Hazel-eyed Hottie was licking his lips thoughtfully and staring down at his mana pool, half of which was tapped.  
  
Could-have-been-Cousin-Fred sighed. “Before I’m old, Sam.”  
  
“Yeah, Sam,” Green-eyed Hottie said. “Kid’s barely old enough to vote. He’ll have grandchildren by the time you’re done.”  
  
Green-eyed Hottie and Sam had matching tattoos, which was either creepy and romantic or criminal and dangerous. Green-eyed Hottie also had a freaky scar on his left shoulder, like a someone had burned a handprint onto him. Mindy was voting criminal and dangerous. She should just check the machines, do a quick floor sweep, and get the hell out. Except she’d never seen a Magic game quite like this.  
  
“It’s a bloody card game, not chess,” Looks-Like-Badger said. He had a British accent, even. For one moment, Mindy missed her dad. Fiercely.  
  
“I do not understand,” Blue-eyed Hottie said. “If Sam is attacking me, why can I not retaliate?”  
  
Could-have-been-Cousin-Fred rolled his eyes. “For the last time, the game moves in phases. Once Sam is done with his attack phase, then we can all respond accordingly.”  
  
Blue-eyed Hottie pursed his lips. Then he held out his cards. “Are any of these useful?”  
  
Green-eyed Hottie face-palmed. “Cas, you can’t show everyone your hand. It defeats half of the purpose of the game.”  
  
“I do not see the purpose of this game,” Cas said. “Dean, you have very strong feelings about magic and witchcraft, and isn’t this --”  
  
Dean sighed. “It’s a game, Cas. Just a game. Shut up and play. We’re stuck here till our clothes are clean.” He slanted Sam a look. “Some wife you are, bitch.”  
  
Maybe the tattoos were creepy and romantic after all.  
  
“Jerk,” Sam responded easily. “And it’s not my job to babysit my older brother’s laundry. I did the research. The creature spits goo, I said. Make sure you have a change of clothes, I said. Hurry up and move out, you said. No time for your prissy primping, you said. Laundry can wait a day, you said. And now here we are, playing one of Kevin’s nerdy card games in the middle of a laundromat, each of us one pair of boxers away from being arrested as sex offenders.”  
  
“You can’t call me a nerd,” Kevin said. “You know what synecdoche is. And also you’ve read all the Harry Potter books.”  
  
“And we’re putting on a free show for the help,” Looks-Like-Badger said. He glanced over his shoulder and winked. “Way to be a stereotype, sweetheart.”  
  
Mindy, who’d been quietly checking over the detergent dispenser machine, turned. “Why, because I’m Chinese and working at my parents’ laundry facility? Dry cleaning is across the street, by the way. In case any of you have suits.”  
  
Dean wrinkled his nose. “Wait, you have to dry-clean suits?”  
  
Sam raised his eyebrows, alarmed. “What have you been doing to your suits?” He twisted around - wow, he was ripped - and stared at one washer with darks tumbling round and round. “Are your suits in there?”  
  
“Usually they don’t survive a job,” Dean said. “So I don’t really clean them. Ever.”  
  
Kevin kicked Looks-Like-Badger in the shin. “Racist jackass.”  
  
Rage crossed Looks-Like-Badger’s face. “What the hell do you think you’re doing to me --”  
  
“I think I’m kicking a racist jackass wearing a publisher,” Kevin said sunnily.  
  
Dean abandoned his cards and hopped off the counter, made a beeline for the washer. He went to wrench it open. “Can I save my suits?”  
  
“Wait -- no!” Mindy cried out.  
  
It was too late.  
  
Water and clothes - jeans, t-shirts, enough flannel shirts to clothe an army of lumberjacks - tumbled across the linoleum floor, sudsy and heavy.  
  
Kevin face-palmed. He said something to Mindy in Mandarin that sounded angry but, judging by his facial expression, was apologetic.  
  
“Yeah, I don’t speak Chinese. I was raised by white people.”  
  
Kevin blinked at her.   
  
“It’s called adoption.” Mindy crossed the room and opened the maintenance cupboard. She had a bucket and heavy-duty mop for moments just like this.   
  
“But --” Kevin gestured vaguely at her shirt.  
  
She was still wearing her black sweats and Jeet Kun Do shirt from training earlier in the day. “Yeah, I watched _The Crow_ as a kid and had a crush on Brandon Lee. It spawned a good habit. So, you fellas mind letting a lady through to do her job?”  
  
Sam had snagged one of the laundry carts and was loading clothes into it. Dean was tearing through what was still in the washer in search of his suit.  
  
Cas slid off the counter cautiously and landed on his toes, like he was unsure of the motion.  
  
“What possessed you to just open it like that?” Sam asked.  
  
“I thought it would automatically stop.” Dean kept pawing through the clothes. Kevin hopped down from the counter to help Sam.  
  
“It’s a washing machine, not a microwave,” Sam snapped. He cast Mindy a look. “I’m so sorry. He’s taken a few shots to the head and he’s not --”  
  
Dean flipped him off without looking. “Shut up.” Then he tugged a sodden suit jacket from the pile and held it up. “Can your parents fix this at the place across the street?”  
  
Mindy face-palmed.  
  
Looks-Like-Badger said, “As a former tailor, my professional opinion is ‘not bloody likely’.”  
  
Kevin said, “Right! Crowley used to be a tailor. Maybe he can make clothes for us. That’s how he’ll be useful.”  
  
“Shut up,” Crowley said easily.  
  
Kevin actually stuck his tongue out.  
  
Mindy elbowed Dean aside and started mopping up the water. “How about you throw that away - because your friend is right, it’s ruined - and you help me clean up this mess. And then I will stay here and help you with all your damned laundry so I can get you all out of my hair.”  
  
“Hey, Lady,” Dean began, hands raised in a gesture of surrender. “Not my job --”  
  
“She has a point,” Sam said.  
  
“Also,” Cas said, “she is a busty Asian beauty. Like the kind in your magazines. Should you not be more polite to more attractive women?”  
  
Dean face-palmed.  
  
Crowley burst out laughing. Sam looked horrified and apologetic all at once, and Kevin, he looked like he didn’t know how to react to that.  
  
“Cas,” Dean said, his voice dangerously patient, “how many times have we gone over this? You do not discuss porn. Ever.”  
  
Mindy looked down at herself. “Yeah, I’m not really sure I count as busty, but thanks for that. I think. Except not really.” She shoved the mop at Sam. “How about I just leave you boys to your Magic and your laundry and I’ll come do my maintenance check later?”  
  
“Dean,” Sam said, “apologize.”  
  
Dean’s head came up sharply. “For what? It was Cas who opened his big mouth.”  
  
“For being a racist, sexist, shallow arse, I’m guessing,” Crowley said.  
  
Sam wore an expression of supreme bitchiness. He shoved the mop at Dean. “You made this mess. You clean it up. I still haven’t finished my attack phase.” He hopped up onto the counter with athletic ease and scooped up his cards. “You better get up here, Crowley. You’re next.”  
  
“But Sammy --” Dean started.  
  
“It’s Sam,” he said shortly. “And next time, when I mention I found something important in my research, listen to me.”  
  
Dean looked like he was biting back a string of expletives, but then he sighed and started pushing the mop. He grimaced as he waded through the sudsy water, but he kept going like a pro. Kevin resumed his perch on the counter beside Crowley, who was glaring at Sam. Cas was the last to climb back up, legs tucked under him so he was out of Dean’s way.  
  
Then he turned his laser-blue gaze on Mindy, and she shivered. “Do you know how to play? Someone must take Dean’s place.”  
  
Mindy bit her lip. She glanced at Dean, and he met her gaze briefly before staring down at his feet. “Fine,” she said. “I’m in. But don’t expect me to be a pushover because I’m a girl.”  
  
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Crowley said.  
  
Mindy hopped up on the counter and scooped up Dean’s hand. He was awash with mana and, if the d20 he’d been using to track his life was any indicator, nearly dead. She leaned across the battlefield where Sam was tapping more mana and laying out more creatures, and she pointed to two of the cards in Cas’s hand.   
  
“You want to play these once Sam is done. You have enough mana for it.”  
  
“Thank you,” Cas said.  
  
Mindy winked. “You’re welcome.”


End file.
